I mentioned our friends, Jeff and Deb Spencer (RollingRecess) in my last post. They planned to arrive here at Juniper Campground on the Ririe Reservoir in Idaho on Monday. They had been camping in and around Yellowstone National Park before heading here. This campground has one loop that’s only available by reservation – it’s fully booked up through the Fourth of July holiday – and two loops that are first-come-first-served. Over the last week, we’ve watched as a few people pulled out in the mornings from their sites, which were occupied again by noon or 2pm at the latest. After that, we see people pull in with their RVs and circle the loops without finding any open sites.

We advised Jeff and Deb to come early. They asked us to keep an eye on site B18, which is directly behind us. There has been a fifth-wheel trailer in the site since we arrived here last week. Luck was with them. I saw the guy in B18 packing up Monday morning. He pulled out around 9:45am. Donna took a chair over and her exercise mat and worked out until Jeff and Deb showed up around 10:00am and claimed the site. We’re neighbors! We’ve crossed paths with Jeff and Deb several times over the years.

I also mentioned in my last post that my guitar amplifier went kaput. I pulled the chassis to see if I could find the problem. Once I had it out and looked it over, I found the issue right away. A capacitor had blown. I’ve never had this happen before, but I’ve heard of it happening. Usually it’s caused by a voltage spike or overheating – in either case, the dielectric in the capacitor can fail and an internal short circuit across the conductor foil results in the blow-up.

As you can see in the photo, the dielectric in this capacitor is made from paper. Now that I found the problem, the next question was – what can I do about it? Here’s the problem – when we packed the motorhome to hit the road for the summer, I only packed a few hand tools that I felt were essential. Unlike before, when we were on the road full-time and had everything we owned with us, we left a lot of stuff behind in our home in Mesa, Arizona. One of the things I left behind was my soldering station.

I told Donna the capacitor was probably a two dollar part, but with no way to desolder it from the board and solder a new one in its place, I needed to find someone that could do it for me. Monday morning I called Mike’s Music – a music store we saw on Saturday when we went to Idaho Falls. They didn’t have a technician in-house, but they referred me to Gem Pro Audio. I called Dean at Gem Pro and he said he could do it if I brought the amp in – he wanted the whole chassis so he could test it.

I found his little shop in a small industrial park. I could see Dean was up to his ears in work – he had amplifiers, stereos, speaker cabinets and other various things stacked up waiting for repair. I told him about my situation, camping at the reservoir and only staying in the area for another week. I showed him the bad capacitor. He said he could have it done that afternoon. We talked a little more and once he knew I understood vacuum tube amplifier circuits, he proceeded to tell me all about the amplifiers he’s building and his plans to retail them.

He looked at the bad capacitor again and said he thought the failure was due to the fact that many of these Chinese-sourced circuit boards use the cheapest components they can get. In this case, the capacitor was rated for 16 volts. The transformer output for this part of the amplifier was rated at 15.5 volts. That doesn’t leave much tolerance for any voltage variation. It was probably a couple of pennies cheaper than a higher rated capacitor. He said he would put in a new 1000uF capacitor rated for 25 volts. He told me to stand by for a moment and took it to his bench. It took him about five minutes to install the new capacitor and the amp worked! Then I saw him chop-sticking the circuit.

This is a common troubleshooting method where you use a non-conductive probe, like a wood chopstick, to move wiring harnesses or tap on connectors. When he did this, the amp started cutting out. So, there was another problem. He said if I wanted to go get lunch or run an errand or two, he could probably have it ready in an hour or two.

I came back about an hour and half later and he was done. He showed me the connector pins he removed from the transformer harness – they weren’t making solid contact. Rather than replace the pins, he just hard-wired the harness in place. My bill came to $60.43 – the capacitor was about what I figured – $2.29 plus tax. The labor was Dean’s minimum bench charge of $58.00. I wish I had my soldering station, but he did a good job and I think his price was fair.

My amp is working fine again. I also pulled out my Gibson L-130 acoustic guitar and restrung it. I haven’t played the acoustic guitar lately and I’m always happy after I take it out of the case – it’s a fine instrument.

Monday afternoon Jeff and Deb joined us for happy hour and we chatted for a couple of hours. Yesterday, Jeff took his GMC truck to the dealer in Idaho Falls for service in the morning and I went down and picked him up. Around 3pm, they were finished with the work, so I drove him back to Idaho Falls and while I was at it, I picked up a few things we needed at Fred Meyer.

Sunday afternoon I made a batch of Japanese fried rice (yakameshi in Japanese). Donna grilled a new-to-us chicken recipe which featured a lime vinaigrette. She marinated the chicken in the vinaigrette and after grilling, served with a drizzle of the vinaigrette plus thinly sliced jalapeno and chopped fresh cilantro. Tasty!

When I make a batch of fried rice, it’s enough for several servings, but it keeps well in the refrigerator. Tuesday evening I prepped vegetables – zucchini, red pepper and onion for Donna and she grilled the veggies to go with another new recipe – baked ling cod with a miso glaze. The fish was fantastic.

As always, we’re eating well.

The weather has been a little warmer the last couple of days with mid to upper 80s. The forecast calls for 90 degrees over the holiday weekend. Lucky for us, Ririe has turned out to be a great place to beat the extreme heat that’s descended on most of the western states.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!